


We Need Ofsted

by charlotte123456789



Series: Harry Potter One-Shots [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Found Family, Friendship, Funny, Gen, Hogwarts Is a Deathtrap, Ofsted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29377068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charlotte123456789/pseuds/charlotte123456789
Summary: Harry feels like Hogwarts is unsafe and that it needs to close. Who else better to bring his concerns to than Ofsted?
Series: Harry Potter One-Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157993
Kudos: 3





	1. We Need Ofsted

Dear Mr. Potter,

We regret to inform you that this year Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will sadly be unable to open for all Witches and Wizards. 

Following a change in law voted in by the Wizengamot, an annual inspection was required by the magical side branch of the Muggle organisation Ofsted.

They did an in-depth inspection and found several alarming concerns, which can all be found listed on the full report I have sent along with this letter.

They have now legally issued an immediate closure effective until changes have been made.

Once these changes have been verified, only then will the school reopen.

We hope that this will be very soon and, as always, we are reachable by owl or firecall for any concerns or questions you have.

Regards,

Professor McGonagall, Interim Headmistress

Harry read the letter, once, twice, blinked, and then read it a third time.

He started laughing as he realised what it meant: it seemed like his work had paid off.

* * *

Harry was preparing for his fourth year. For the past three years, he had been attending the supposedly ‘prestigious’ Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Personally, he didn’t see quite what all the fanfare was about. Sure, it was in a pretty nice castle and the lake was a nice feature but, from his point of view, the teaching was subpar and the teachers themselves were biased and unfit to teach.

He honestly felt like he would have been better off staying in the Muggle world; standardised teaching, recognisable qualifications, teachers not looking to kill him every five minutes.

That was really a key point though, wasn’t it? Actual background tests to ensure that they didn’t let any random psycho off the street start teaching and having safe lessons where you didn’t need to worry about a hand getting bitten off.

What was that group called that sorted all of that? Off-something? Ofsted!

That should really be a thing in the magical world. It would shut Hogwarts right down and wouldn’t let it back open until it wasn’t such a death trap. If only somebody could do that.

He pondered on it for a few more moments, just a little escape of the drab reality of which he lived in. If only he could change it.

Then the lightbulb moment hit. _He_ could. He was ‘ _the Harry Potter’_ as everyone kept pointing out. If anyone could change this, it could be him.

First, to make a list of people he would need to contact. Anybody at the Ministry would obviously have to be written off as useless. He wanted this school closed now, not just some humming and hawing that it would all be okay and that they knew best. He already knew what their ‘best,’ was and that was imprisoning innocent people without trial just for the show of it.

No, he needed some people with power. Real power. Somebody who could make changes happen now.

Obviously, he’d heard of the Wizengamot being mentioned before. From what he understood of it, it acted kind of like a high court and was above the power of the Ministry; hence, being able to tell them what to do without their opinions mattering. He was also pretty sure it was something to do with families, as to whether you really had any kind of standing within it. But he didn’t really think it would matter much anyway with him being _Harry Potter_.

But that would be part two of the plan. He would go to them only when he had to get the Ministry to act, not before. He just really couldn’t be bothered with all the posturing that would be involved with it just yet.

That left just one option of who he could contact.

Dean Thomas’ step-father - who, very conveniently, worked for the department of education.

Although he and Dean had never been as close as Ron and himself that didn’t mean that they didn’t talk, sharing the same room for 10 months of the year meant that they still bonded. And in the various conversations they shared it had come up that although his real father was a wizard who he’d never met, his step-father was a nice guy who worked at the government. Just one of the little tidbits of information Harry remembered, just in case he needed it for the future.

Except now this future was the present and everything needed to happen quickly. It was already August 13th and he needed the school shut before the new year could begin. He didn’t want to even risk stepping one foot on the train with how well all his previous years had gone.

How to get in contact though was the immediate issue? He knew they lived in London, but London was a big place no matter what TV shows seemed to portray. He was still wondering about the issue when a loud hoot interrupted his thoughts.

“Hedwig, you absolute genius! When we’re next out I am going to give you a mouse so big you’ll be full for a month!”

He could just send an empty envelope with Dean’s name on it and follow Hedwig. A clever owl like her would always be able to find anyone who he wished to send a letter to.

Grabbing an envelope he quickly scribbled down Dean’s full name and let Hedwig out the cage, he wasn’t going to wait when there was still time to burn today.

He turned to pass the envelope to Hedwig and spoke, “If we both get on the Knight Bus just to get to The Leaky Cauldron then that’ll save you a bit of the flight. Then all we need to do is get there which I know you’ll be able to navigate easily.”

Hedwig stared at him with her large all-knowing eyes but presented her leg on which to attach a letter to nonetheless. Once securely attached, she hopped onto his awaiting arm and they were off.

* * *

It turned out that Harry had slightly overestimated his ability to follow Hedwig across London. Because, of course, what he had forgotten was that whilst she could just fly over everything and go directly there, he could not and instead was stuck traipsing the side streets to try and stay on the right track.

But that did not matter anymore as he had reached what he hoped was their house. Harry knocked on the door and waited patiently. He was quite pleased with himself though when Dean opened the door and not a stranger.

Seeing the surprise on Dean’s face Harry spoke quickly before any more of his precious time was lost, “Hi Dean! Nice to see you. How’s your summer been? Good? Great. I need to speak to your dad, no time to explain. I’ll do that all later, after I’ve spoken to him.”

Dean had a slightly glazed look about him as if everything Harry had said had just soared straight over his head but he still moved aside to allow room for Harry to enter bellowing, “Dad! I have a friend who wants to talk to you!”

So that was what had led up to Harry now sitting comfortably in a chair, in a small office with Dean Thomas’ father, being served a cup of tea after just having explained the previous years that now lead up to him being there.

“Do you think you can shut them down? I don’t want to go back there with it being so dangerous and I don’t know who else to turn to,” Harry said quietly before sipping his tea.

The man sitting across from him nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. It may take a few days but I can get things rolling.”

Harry smiled for the first time that summer.

* * *

Fast forward to a week later and things were in motion and now happening quickly. Dean’s dad, Robert - “call me Rob”, had been invaluable. He had single-handedly put together a new subdivision inside Ofsted by speaking to others whose children ‘mysteriously disappeared’ throughout the year to a boarding school of which no photos were displayed. 

Turns out that there were quite a few.

All members of the new division worked together to lay out some new, more specialised guidelines that remained close to the original checklist yet with a few more points geared especially towards the magical world. Everyone had been briefed and they were all ready to do a full inspection top to bottom when required.

That meant it was all now down to Harry to get them in.

* * *

“The Wizengamot Meeting is now in session. Please remain seated until called upon. If any matters are not resolved in this session they may be continued to the next for a maximum of three sessions. I call the first person to the floor, Tiberius Ogden.”

Harry found out quite quickly that Wizengamot meetings were very dull. He had to sit there patiently as matter upon matter were discussed, no matter how boring they were; taxes on alcohol, permits for Apparition, where a new office was going to be located. So very, very dull.

“And now I call to the floor, Harry Potter.”

A sudden murmur went through the gathered crowd as his name was called. Finally, his time had come - he strode down the steps and took to the floor acting as if he was the only person they had really came to see.

“Wizards and Witches of the Wizengamot, I am here today to propose something that should have been enacted many years ago. We all know that Hogwarts is the leading wizarding school on the continent,” he had to hold in his guffaws when he uttered that statement, “however, in recent times, the safety of the students has been compromised within its hallowed halls.”

He paused whilst the audience took in his words, another murmur going through the crowd.

“Just a few instances include a Cerberus residing in an unused classroom, Mr. Gilderoy Lockheart who, an exposed fraud, was allowed to teach such a dangerous class with no prior background checks, and obviously the most serious incident being Sirius Black being able to breach the wards of Hogwarts and enter the castle and endanger students.”

He paused again as the murmurs had started once again as he listed off each occurrence that had happened within the past three years.

“This is why I am proposing that Hogwarts be subject to regular inspections that can identify any problems and weaknesses that the school may have, and have the necessary powers to do whatever it must to solve them so it may regain its exemplary record.”

He bowed at the members surrounding him before he turned sharply and went to sit back in his seat.

He didn’t need to pay attention now, he knew he’d already won them all over. The majority of members had children or grandchildren at Hogwarts and any possibility that they may not be safe was enough to sway them. For the remaining members, it was simply mentioning the declining standards and that Hogwarts should be the only wizarding school for people to consider, many having gone there themselves and still viewed it as amazing. Hence, by suggesting it may not be up to par, but by offering up an immediate solution, persuaded them. Simple.

Ten short minutes later the final vote was cast - 47 yes to 3 no. Success.

Harry stood up once again and took to the floor before anyone could stop him. “As the vote has now passed, with the vast majority agreeing with my beliefs, I can happily inform you that no such team needs to be developed. Due to the Ministry of Magic being an integrated part of the British government, they have kindly allowed us to make use of their employees in the Office for Standards in Education. All employees for the task are already well versed in magic and have a checklist of standardised requirements that shall be met to ensure a safe learning environment. Once the inspection is done, a full report will be provided and they can take any action they believe is necessary to ensure the safety of students and staff, up to and including closing the school.”

A roar of outrage filled the room - shouts of dismay could be heard arguing that “filthy Mudbloods” would be inspecting it, that “Hogwarts can’t be shut!” and “how could this be happening?”

All it did was make Harry smirk.

“The team has already been mobilised with a ministerial affirmation of consent with them to enable them, to the full extent of the law, to inspect Hogwarts. I expect it to take no more than a week and full results of the said inspection and actions taken regarding it to be available within three weeks hence.”

Everyone stared at him as he uttered his final statement and with a sharp bow he departed the room.

* * *

He went back to Dean’s house.

He had been staying there since he first visited on that one fateful day in August. It turned out that trekking all the way across London with no adult when only 13 threw up a few red flags within any reasonable adult's mind, then after a few pointed questions from both of Dean’s parents, they contacted the Muggle police. It turned out however that there wasn’t really much coercion needed to let Harry remain with them, as apparently as soon as the police had shown up, they had started screaming about Wizards and Witches. They had both been sectioned under the mental health act and, as no other relatives could be found for Harry, it was decided that he stay with the Thomas’ pending check-ins from the local children’s agency. Overall, Harry had thought that had turned out quite well for everyone involved.

He was welcomed inside and sat down on the sofa to share the news. He reported back that it had all gone as expected and the team that Rob had put together would be moving in now. It was now just a waiting game to see what the full report was and what actions would be taken.

Harry just hoped a full closure was in the books.

* * *

The report in the envelope alongside the letter listed off failure after failure; unsecured moving stairways were a major hazard, potions teaching was unsafe and had numerous health code violations involved, literally no background checks on teachers, a class system that encouraged bullying and resentment. The list just went on and on.

It would take years for Hogwarts to sort out just the physical problems, let alone re-establishing a working house system that didn’t foster animosity between groups.

He was finally in the clear. His wish was granted.

He now had a somewhat new yet supportive family including several new siblings, Hogwarts was shut, he could now just go back to being just Harry.

Sure, he would miss Ron and Hermione but they could always write, and it’s not like 3 years was really all that much in the long run of things.

He wanted to be just Harry and, in the Muggle world, he could do just that.

It took Hogwarts getting closed to get here but it was worth it - that place was a death trap anyways.

Muggle life - here he comes.


	2. Hogwarts Ofsted Report

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Said Ofsted Report following on from previous one-shot.

Ofsted School report 

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Scottish Highlands

Inspection Dates: 27 August to 03 September 1994

Overall effectiveness - inadequate

Effectiveness of leadership and management - inadequate

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment - inadequate

Personal development behaviour and welfare - inadequate

Outcomes for pupils - inadequate

_This school is closed effective immediately until such a time when rating improves._

**Summary of key findings for parents and pupils**

_This is an inadequate school._

>Leaders have an overoptimistic view of how well they and the school are doing. As a result, their is little progress in identifying and tackling weaknesses.

>Marking policy is not being followed, this prevents pupils from improving their work.

>No background checks is a serious violation allowing pupils to be placed at serious risk from unknown and possibly dangerous adults.

>Disruption is rife within lessons due to a failed house system that harbours animosity.

>Quality of teaching is inconsistent across subjects and years, with many pupils finding the work either too hard or too difficult meaning they do not progress.

>Management of school are biased and have opposing priorities meaning that student welfare is overlooked and not the main priority.

>No risk assessments are in place and multiple serious dangers are visible including moving staircases, unwarded potions cabinets, a lake with no charm to ensure that no students drown etc.

>Rate of progress is minimal compared to other teaching institutions, this has lead to depleting student numbers as they go elsewhere.

>Pupils feel unsafe and do not trust staff to support them.

>Teacher to pupil ratio is drastically out of proportion with 1 teacher to every 100 pupils. This is inadequate.

_The school has the following strengths_

>Within the school there are teachers who have high expectations and who enable pupils to engage in interesting and exciting lessons.

Information about this inspection: 

>Inspectors surveyed the site.

>Inspectors spoke to nearly all teachers and site staff.

>A select number of pupils were chosen randomly and surveyed for their thoughts and feelings.

>Student work was surveyed.

>Inspectors took note of recent external exam results.

Inspection Team: 

Gerald Bolton, lead inspector - Ofsted Inspector

Robert Thomas - Her Majesty's Inspector

Avairy Quinn - Ofsted Inspector

Elise Jones - Ofsted Inspector


End file.
